A food consumption pattern study in Jakarta revealed low consumptions of ultraprocessed foods in the city.

The findings could reinforce previous data suggesting that developing countries consume less ultraprocessed foods as compared to developed ones.

The study was conducted based on the Jakarta Individual Food Consumption Survey 2014. Researchers aimed to analyse processed and ultraprocessed food consumption in Jakarta, classify the foods consumed, and calculate their contribution to overall energy and nutrient intake.

The nonprocessed food group was defined to include fresh foods, unprocessed foods, raw materials food preparation, and breast milk. This included rice, the nation’s staple.

Ultraprocessed foods were defined to include foods processed via the addition of many ingredients, mostly ready-to-eat or only requiring simple preparation before consumption. Beverages dominated this category, including tea, coffee and high-sugar beverages.

The food categories were grouped into nonprocessed, processed (nonprocessed plus a few ingredients only, e.g. white bread), processed ingredients (cannot be directly consumed, e.g. flour) and ultraprocessed based on the NOVA classification system.

Jakarta was selected for the study due to its highly heterogeneous population, as well as its higher accessibility to various food types.

The study found that overall, Jakarta individuals’ daily food consumption was dominated by nonprocessed foods (57.2%), and that ultraprocessed foods only comprised less than one-fifth of the total (19.5%).

This was in stark contrast to studies conducted in developed countries where ultraprocessed foods were revealed to contribute to over half of the total energy intake.

Ulltraprocessed foods contributed to 53% and 57.9% of total energy intake in the United Kingdom and United States respectively. However, according to the authors, the Jakarta study results were in accordance with studies conducted in Brazil, a developing country.